Belal Muhammad will walk to the octagon with the Palestinian flag on his back as he prepares to defend his welterweight title for the first time at UFC 315 in Montreal on May 10.
While he has carried the flag with him in previous fights, there was some question about whether or not he would be allowed after the flag was briefly removed from his UFC profile. The flag was later restored with Muhammad stating that it was just a mistake that the UFC quickly rectified.
“Yeah, 100 percent,” Muhammad told MMA Fighting about walking out with the Palestinian flag. “We’ve talked about it and they’ve accepted it. Nothing is going to stop me from doing it.”
Muhammad, whose parents hail from Palestine, has been very outspoken about the ongoing conflict there ever since fighting first occurred. He’s run fundraisers and shown his support for Palestine through interviews and social media.
He plans to do the same in the days leading up to his fight against Jack Della Maddalena.
“It’s hard, especially right now,” Muhammad said. “It’s been over two years now where they’re dying, they’re starving, the people over there are in so much pain. The world’s just watching it. The world’s just coming up with excuses for it. It’s wild.”
As much as defending the UFC title means to him, Muhammad promises he’s always going to be fighting for something bigger, especially with reports that people living in the Gaza strip have had no medicine, fuel or food transported there for the past 60 days.
Despite the harrowing conditions, Muhammad revealed previously that he still received messages of support and congratulations after he won his UFC title this past July. That has served as even more motivation for him ahead of the title fight at UFC 315.
“For me, it just makes me want to work that much harder for them,” Muhammad said. “It makes me go to the gym, run that extra mile, lift that extra weight. Because I can’t lose. There’s no way I’m going to let the people see me not get my hand raised. When they see me fight that day, they’re going to see that flag get raised When they see me win that day, they’re going to see that flag get raised. They’re going to see me get on the mic and talk about them. They’re going to see me get on the mic and be a voice for them.
“The only way I can be their voice is by continuing to win. I just have to keep continuing to work, keep continuing to push it and it’s all in god’s hands. God has a plan for everything and I’m hoping this finally comes to an end soon.”
As much as he’s focused on his upcoming fight, Muhammad says the people in Palestine are never far from his mind, which is why he’s spent just as much time trying to bring attention what’s happening there as he’s done building anticipation for his return on May 10.
That’s another reason why Muhammad was so adamant about carrying the flag with him to the octagon so he can continue to represent the people of Palestine on the biggest stage possible.
“Like I said, I’ve just been getting so many messages, people just wanting to know what’s happening there because they see me carrying that flag and what it means and what it means to me,” Muhammad said. “If you’re human, you want to know what’s going on there. If you’re human and you see it and you ignore it, you’re not really human. You don’t have a soul. If you can see kids starving, if you see kids dying, if you see all their suffering and you just turn your head away, look at yourself in the mirror and really ask yourself: What would you do if those people were from a different country? What would I do if those people weren’t Arab? What would I do if those people weren’t this color?
“Just so many people out here that are afraid to speak up, afraid to say something, afraid to do anything because they’re afraid of the consequences. There shouldn’t be consequences for being human.”
